Weeks away from beginning his fifth and final college season, Alabama linebacker Deonate Lawson was ready at SEC media days last week to compare what he has sensed within the Tide’s locker room in 2025 to his previous four years.
“The connection is probably the best since I’ve been here, to be honest,” Lawson told SEC Network.
A year-and-a-half after the transition from Nick Saban to Kalen DeBoer, the differences between the two coaches — and how that was received by players last season — was still a talking point last week in Atlanta. Lawson hinted at that reception from players not being as strong as it needed to be.
“Last year, it was kind of — it was a great connection, but it was Coach DeBoer’s first year,” Lawson continued. “Coming from Coach Saban, people don’t know what to really think. But with a year under his belt, we’re all bought into what he got.”
Explained Lawson later: “It’s just hard for [DeBoer] to try to imply his way of doing things or his standard to us so early on Year 1. But now Year 2, I mean, we’re all for DeBoer, and we’re all into what he has to say or what he wants to do for the program. I think he definitely feels that and the players feel that as well. We’re excited and we’re ready.”
Lawson, a permanent team captain last season, spent his first three seasons under Saban and acknowledged the former coach and his methods might never be equalled among coaches. But Lawson supported the change to DeBoer’s style.
“I think Coach DeBoer is a great fit for the new era of college football, basically,” Lawson told SiriusXM College Sports Radio. “He’s just a players coach.”
Defensive tackle Tim Keenan, also a five-year Tide player who hails from the state, agreed.
“Chemistry-wise, he’s definitely a great leader,” Keenan told WJOX. “He’s definitely a players coach.”
The words “buy in” came up again from Lawson as he described why DeBoer has won over players.
“He just makes you want to put everything on the line,” Lawson told SiriusXM. “Because you know, he always say, ‘We’re all in this together.’ That’s just a great feeling. The process — obviously they have their own structure, their own process of how they do things, but both ways are beneficial and both ways, they work. It’s just something about the players. You got to buy in. We’ve got to have all the players to buy in to have the standard be withheld.”
Lawson joined Alabama as part of its 2021 recruiting class, a No. 1-ranked class nationally that has already produced NFL players in JC Latham, Dallas Turner, Kool-Aid McKinstry, Terrion Arnold, Jalen Milroe Robbie Ouzts, and should produce at least three more in Lawson, Keenan and Jaeden Roberts. But 18 players from that class transferred out, and there was at least one player in Agiye Hall who clashed with Saban.
“I remember when I was a freshman, we probably had some guys that wasn’t that bought into the standard that you say, or the process,” Lawson told SiriusXM. “But I think it’s a little different now. I think Coach DeBoer does a great job with his structure and how he gets things done. I think it’s pretty straight-forward to follow.”
The idea of “buy-in” that Lawson explored also extended to the defense.
“I think we all just have to be bought in,” Lawson said. “I think that started right when the bowl game ended, and we just all had to come together. I think being Year 1 and [defensive coordinator Kane Wommack]’s system, we had our bumps and bruises that we had to go through throughout the season. We just have to get more reps. I think as the season progressed, we were able to get better from it.
“I’m very excited for our defense this year. I feel like we have more guys that knows Coach Wo’s system, and we know the scheme. Now it’s all about honing in on what the offense do, so we’re able to anticipate at the highest level and fire out.”
Alabama ‘revisiting the standard’ in 2025: ‘Getting back to keep business, business’
Keenan dismissed Alabama’s 9-4 season in 2024 as “not the standard of Alabama football — everyone knows that,” and shared what has apparently changed since.
“It’s been a sense of urgency that the work gonna be the work,” Keenan told WJOX. “Don’t try to get around it. No ifs, ands or buts. You got to make it hard on yourself. If you make it hard on yourself, the work will pay off later.”
Four-and-a-half years removed from its most recent national championship and three-and-a-half years after the program’s most recent College Football Playoff win, Alabama players are “starving,” Lawson says — but also closer to each other than he’s ever seen.
“We’re just so connected and we’re so for each other,” he told SEC Network. “Just coming in the morning and seeing your teammate, that just makes a smile on your face.”